Step 4: Placing brances

Step 5: Fill in with soil and plant

Once all of the branches have been placed, fill with soil and other green matter as necessary. Fill in the front of the trench so that the soil is lev...

This instructable will show you how to make a natural looking raised garden using only small branches, a few thicker logs and some straight timber sections. This design was the product of clearing up a garden and not wanting to dump or burn the branches. We needed to build a raised garden and had no money - so we threw a little ingenuity at the problem.

Step 1: Design considerations

The first steps obviously involve a certain amount of design and this will depend on your site, required garden size and other variables that you consider important for your garden. The major variable that I can guide you on will be height of the garden. I have made this garden about waist height, so about 1m high. This is primarily so one can bend over and reach plants toward the rear of the garden. You can make yours any height, however the post hole depth that you will need to dig should be at least the height of the garden. Essentially we are trying to create a retaining wall so be very careful with your design - you don't want to harm anyone from a collapsing raised garden!

Also before you start, ensure you have enough branches. I ended up using more than I could have imagined so give your trees a good trimming! Also if you are building next to a fence (as I have done) ensure that you place a polythene sheet between the fence and the soil to avoid rotting of the fence.

It's been years, and this is still one of my favourite 'ibles. Very clear instructions, clear photos, and reasons given for the steps so that readers can make their own adjustments per their circumstances. Thanks again! I have roughly a cord of sticks from our 25yo eucalyptus tree, as well as trimmings from fruit trees, and I'm gonna make the HECK out of some garden beds this year.

Hi--What a great idea and super clear instructions! I have been trying to figure out how to do some terraces to act as raised garden beds on a shallow slope in my yard. Like you I am cash-free, but have sticks-a-plenty!

I had a few thoughts about some of the other comments. About the barrier between the dirt and fence: Canvas, good quality cotton denim/twill, sailcloth or material used for outdoor awnings and cushions could be helpful, and it seems all you would need would be a good sized scrap.(Maybe free? It could happen!) You could stretch it over a frame like an artist canvas. For added strength you could even laminate a few layers of fabric with water based glue like elmers, then lean it against the fence. Use a few 2x4 scraps to make spacers, or lean on the fence posts-just to make an air space. It would be quite strong--the fabric would probably outlast the wood!

I think a layer of tightly woven fabric between the sticks and dirt might slow their deterioration as well. But really, it's not such a bit deal, is it? Stick decays, go get another stick. No sweat!

Go outside... :) Lots of places you could just go out to the country with a forest, go in, grab fallen branches, take help!! :) My wife and I were just talking about doing this and had the same question and both kinda laughed at ourselves... plenty of lumber mother nature gives to us... namaste

If you have access to wire, you could weave wire into the sticks as you assemble it . This would provide some stability to the walls. I like the idea of cardboard to line the inside. Maintenance could be as simple as building a new wall of sticks outside of the old wall, and leaving the old wall in place.

Great idea. I love the way it looks, however, I would not put dirt directly against the fence like that. It will dramatically accelerate rotting of the fence boards and post. The wimpy fence boards will eventually bow outward as well.

It looks like a layer of black plastic would prevent rot as for the pressure of soil and eventually water bowing out the fence I think you are right. perhaps the stick wall completely around the raised bed would be a nice fix and really complete this great idea. The sticks would allow for optimal drainage and aeration of the soil. as long as there are enough holes in the plastic against the stick walls. I am afraid that doing work in the bed would ruin it if one cannot reach the back by hand.

The two main reasons for having a home garden is to reduce costs of produce and eat produce with less chemicals.

I have been following some really cleaver recycling plastic products in the garden. The projects make sense except for the issue of BPA. If you don’t know about BPA or how harmful it can be I suggest you spend the next hour in google and research the harmful effects of BPA.

I should also tell you; if you are American you have a 100% chance that BPA is already in your blood stream.

If you really want to jump start your education you should read Mercola’s story – titled “232 Toxic Chemicals found in 10 Babies” here is a fast take on it:

Laboratory tests commissioned by the Environmental Working Group have detected bisphenol A (BPA), a plastic component and synthetic estrogen, in umbilical cord blood of American infants.

BPA has been implicated in a lengthening list of serious chronic disorders, including cancer, cognitive and behavioral impairments, endocrine system disruption, reproductive and cardiovascular system abnormalities, diabetes, asthma and obesity.

In all, the tests found as many as 232 chemicals in the 10 newborns, all of minority descent. The cord blood study has produced hard new evidence that American children are being exposed, beginning in the womb, to complex mixtures of dangerous substances that may have lifelong consequences.

Tell it to the person who wrote the instructable !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I merely pointed out irvinejamie's procedure for someone who obviously didn't take the time to read the directions which I'm quite sure you didn't either. If you have issues with environmental contaminants write a letter to the EPA and FDA and your congressman not on here.. And make a change by your own personal decisions/actions daily. Tell me what data have you collected on the uptake of BPA from soil to plant tissues? or even from plastic to soil? Have there even been any studies? I don't even know what type of plastic was used in this project. What about the gigantic land fills let alone someones backyard and tomatoes. just a few questions you should ask yourself, which I am curious about too, before you go spoutin' off all righteous like. Babies chewing on plastic toys and people eating and drinking off of plastic is a direct route for BPA contamination. Super markets use plastic to package all sorts of organic produce all the time in direct contact with what we eat not buffered by soil hummus. It is the type of plastic that we must be aware of. For example HDPE is high density polyethelene and is considered food grade and non chemically reactive. Is the black plastic in question made from this? Perhaps you should think about how your posted comment detracts from this ingenious idea. I'm sure that if you were to make this project yourself you could probably bundle the sticks tight enough and line the bottom with wood in order to not use plastic at all to keep the vermin and weeds at bay sealing in the good composted soil for the plants. All in all a great project to inspire home gardeners.

While I agree it seems that no studies have been done to examine the transmission of BPA to soil and then plant tissues, but that seems very irrelevant when you consider both the excessive cost and therefore virtual impossibility of such a study being conducted without some serious backing/regulatory enforcement and on the other hand the fact that IF such a path does exist, you are KILLING or (maybe even worse) damaging, debilitating, and otherwise seriously effing up yourself, your family, etc..

Polyethylene is not polymerized with BPA like polycarbonate is. See my next post. So glug glug down those BPA's from your polycarbonate nalgene bottle and be irrational about using plastic in your garden, i really dont care what you do. If you truly wanted to err on the side of caution then try not using any plastics at all in direct or indirect contact with you or your food for just 1 day. It ain't happening unless you live in a third world country. What do you do when you wake up in the morning? Shove a piece of plastic in your mouth to brush your teeth with, every day twice a day. I think the black plastic underground is the least of concern in terms of potential contaminates entering the body. The aforementioned study can be done easily and at very low cost in any modern chem lab from samples taken from my backyard or probably from the yards of many people living on your street. This plastic is ubiquitous in landscape architecture. I could do the analysis at home myself if I had a HPLC mass spec machine. I am sorry if you take this post the wrong way ALiveOne. I just think that knowledge about materials and their chemistry is the best way to protect oneself from the potential cornucopia of hazards we have in a highly industrial commercial society. I believe in being super green and I love the environment. That is why I work for an environmental toxicology lab upholding EPA regulations and have a degree in biology. Testing sediments (dirt) and water for toxicants are part of my daily job. This is my advice and new mnemonic about plastics " # 7&3 bad for me! Everything else don't worry."

Take it the wrong way? this is rational discourse at its finest. Yes, yes I understand that the latest poster child of deforming chemicals we feed ourselves is (BPA), actually I think they've moved on to attacking the alloy they make Sigg bottles out of now but that could be rumurous, isn't neccesarily a concern in this situation (although I am still not sold, once again, show me the study that say it WON'T kill me, cause I don't oiperate the other way around like the EPA does.) The big point here, which I think you missed once again, is that while we can do individual tests and figure out (after the fact) which chemicals hurt us and how they can get into our bodies, we don't know much about why this keeps happening. Also, everytime it happens, one might notice that they move to a new plastic and guess what? That one causes cancer too, only we won't know until we have it. So stick with your mnemonics if you like, but I don't trust it one bit.

And yes for reference I do try to limit the amount of syntehtic materials touching my food at all costs, although I think my skins does a good enough job keeping it out when I touch it, I still don't wear synthetics much at all (for a backpacker, skier, and climber, that is excessively odd).

As another note on the ubiquity of plastic in the landscape: While you may test soil, I have worked laying it down as a landscaper and I can tell you that not once have I put plastic in a garden. Never.

So to recap:

1) It doesn't make sense for people to ask for studies to prove that something WILL kill you, I'd rather be assured that it will NOT....

2) It's not as hopeless as everyone makes it out to be, we can survive the materials explosions that is also causing a disease explosion (and yes I believe we can solve it through materials science not by moving into wood huts).

I was unaware this was such a big issue. Personally I built this garden next to a fence as this was the only place for it. I would not recommend this without stabilizing the fence first using plywood boards (untreated) or a fibre-cement board between the soil and the fence. However these may need to be replaced after a few years. The plastic sheeting was something we had lying around and since it is commonly used for waterproofing house foundations from moisture, I decided to use it. If you are attempting to attain a totally organic solution, definitely do not use plastic sheeting but use sticks, bricks or something that does not leach chemicals into the soil.

I love this as a starting point for my own take on recycling "tree trash" from my backyard - I bought a home this past year with nearly an acre of unfenced yard and as I don't have the finances for all that I would like to do, I have been pondering the best way to use all the downed tree trash in the back yard for a short term fencing solution. Take the larger posts you've used at the edges, drill a hole near the top and bottom, drill similar holes in the thinner "stringing material," then string those pieces until the space between the thicker posts are filled in. This fence can be as tall or as short as you might want (to keep your critters corralled) and should last a few years till it can be replaced with a more permanent fence! Thank you for the great 'ible and the idea! :)

AWESOME Idea. I am in the process of doing this even though it's fall.... should have found this earlier. Oh well.

I'm also curious as to preventing rot on the sticks and how the creator's raised bed is doing now.

I have some left over thin logs that I'm going to use instead of a bunch of sticks. Perhaps I'll line the inside with some straight planks of store-bought wood and still get the attractive exterior and also a layer of tarp or something.

This is a weird thought, but rather then inhibiting rot, why not encourage it?

If you seeded the sticks with mushroom spawn, you'd have wild mushroom down low, and interesting plants up top. I've also heard that encouraging mushroom growth promotes healthier plants since the fungus can form symbiotic relationships with root systems.

The downside being you'd hafta eventually redo the raised bed, but there's always maintainence.

And it looks nice enough to have me wonder and think it would be interesting to see your design implemeted in different types of wood sticks on a whole depending on and reflecting the area of the country it was built. Birch, Cedar etc etc.

Use plastic and future gardeners will be cursing your name for the next fifty years every time they try to dig in your piece of earth and keep coming up with chunks of black plastic - after they manage to cut thought it. I suggest layers and layers of cardboard behind the branches. By the time the branches are ready to rot the cardboard will have already improved the tilth of the soil,kept plants from coming between the sticks, and retained the soil. It's even earth colored when wet. PS Nothing on this world is permanent and gardeners know that better then anyone.

You've given me something to think about. I have some bamboo that needs a major cut back. I have held off because I didn't want to just waste it. I don't ygarden much but I could build raised bads without and material outlay except for some top soil. The nice, straight bamboo should make an excellent wall.

I think this is an EXCELLENT ideal!!! I live in Canada were I haven't seen much problem with termites. I'm always looking for things to do that help save the environment and prevent dumping... I only have about 15' by 10' of soil space in our back yard, because of our garage and concrete parking pad, and our dogs poop... I find container gardening is a lot more efficient anyway [no slugs and hardly any weeds], but... I think this would be a great way to hide the plastic containers and make it look more natural.

This looks really great, but I was just wondering if it would attract a termite problem? I know certain kinds of wood are impervious to termites, so just wondering... Otherwise, this would be a really lovely gardening project. : )

Unless this is really, really close to your house, termites are a non-issue. Termites will occur where there is sufficient dead wood and enough moisture. They are a part of the landscape in most of North America - except where is it quite dry. Termites are reluctant to travel more than a few feet without direct protection of the ground or covered "tunnels" they construct along the shady sides of concrete foundations and such. They cannot tolerate direct sunlight.

If the raised bed is 10-feet or more from the house, there is not any additional risk to that you already might have.

Their presence in the sticks should actually be seen as a good sign: no-to-low toxicity n the soil. proper moisture regime, and clean, "digestible" wood. All good news for your garden and its plants!

This is a good question and one that I pondered myself. One of the reasons we had so many branches was that they decomposed so slowly in our compost heap (like 3-4 years). Therefore, depending on the soil and amount of decomposing matter in the soil, this design could last quite a while, especially if using natural branches e.g with bark still attached. Also the design allows air to flow around the majority of the branches - especially at the front.

Another option to avoid almost any maintenance may be to use a black polythene sheet behind the branches. The layer of plastic will almost completely minimise decomposition of the branches.

If decomposition does eventually become a problem, then inserting new branches at the back after each season to reinforce could be an option. The posts and beams (if you use treated timber for the beams) will possibly never need to be replaced. A 100mm diameter timber log could take decades to decompose, even if buried completely in soil.

I would feel confident in saying that this should last at least 2 years without any maintenance at all. However, will update after a few seasons time!

My bigger concern would be the fence. If it's not pressure treated those fence panels tend to degrade pretty quickly. I hope it has nice deep posts and all that. Best practice with setting a fence is to keep the panels off the ground since they'll rot out otherwise. The bed looks really nice though!

You wouldn't want garden soil, if used to grow produce, against pressure treated wood, for fear of leaching chemicals into the food. I think either way a sheet of polyurethane would be the best bet as a barrier.

A really good instructable. It makes me want to do it, leaves me with no questions unanswered, and makes a great looking product. Much better than a video. In fact, I believe any instructable this clearly written and photographed is better than a video.

yes for my current raised beds I have dismanteled pallets and built them 1 or 2 boards high (depending on the crops in them) and used the thicker wood parts of the pallets for vertical posts. Even reused the nails so there was zero cost.

I really like this idea. Looks like a good use of green waste and looks cool. I would also be concerned about using the fence as one of the sides of the raised bed, even with whatever type of barrier the black sheet is in the pictures. But a great idea non the less. Good job!

Hey!!! This could be one of the best ideas I have seen in a long time!!! Congratulations. What makes this so elegant is that it can likely solve a lot of problems while being ultra environmentally friendly at the same time. I have studied a famous organic farmer named Fukuoka, and one of his great secrets is to dig a trench before setting up your gardens and bury decomposing logs and branches at the bottom. As the logs decompose they give off valuable nitrogen and also help to aerate the soil from the bottom up. So, investing the work up front to dig pays off for many years as the log last for a long long time providing free fertilizer. These logs are burried as deep as 3 feet. I think this branch concept will work similarly. As the innermost branches rot they will provide valuable fertilizer and aeration and you will have a perpetual place to get rid of each years new branch refuse as the inner branches rot you replace them with each years new fallen branches. I can imagine that over time the side walls could become a small ecosystem in there own right. It would be interesting to see if you can plant usefull vines or insect repelling flora in amogst the branches. Its amazing what folks come up with when broke!!!

great product and nicely written instructable. if i had been doing it, i wouldn't have thought to cut the branches in situ, but it definitely looks like that made a much cleaner design. i like the extra thought you put into notching the posts too.

Excellent instructable! A great way to recycle yard waste around our gardens! It is simple but yet very useful! I have been wondering for a while how to use the branches and cut down trees in my yard. Thank you!